Non-examination Assessment – Assignment 1: Texts that exemplify key features of chosen genre (style models)

This assignment requires you to select and analyse two style models – published texts that exemplify the key features of a chosen genre. The genre could be anything from travel writing to political speeches, opinion columns to memoir extracts. Your task is to identify the characteristic linguistic, structural, and pragmatic features that define that genre, and to demonstrate how these features create meaning and achieve the writer's purpose. This is the foundation for your own original writing in Assignment 2, so getting it right is crucial.

Why does this matter? Genre analysis is a core skill in English Language study. By dissecting style models, you learn to see beyond surface content and understand how language works as a system of choices. This mirrors what professional writers do: they read widely within their chosen field to internalise conventions before creating their own work. For your exam, this assignment is worth 30 marks (15% of the total A-level), and it directly feeds into your ability to write creatively and comment on your own writing process.

In the wider A-level, this assignment connects to the 'Language in the Media' and 'Language and Identity' topics. You'll apply concepts from pragmatics (e.g., Grice's maxims), discourse structure, and lexis. The skills you develop here – close reading, pattern-spotting, and linking language to context – are exactly what you need for Paper 1 and Paper 2. Think of this as your chance to become a mini-expert in a genre you genuinely enjoy.